All of this information, along with images and precise descriptions can be found ingame by pressing Escape>Help and reading the topics you wish to learn about.

Stances are a new feature that we have recently implemented into Obscurity. This will all be properly detailed when we officially release 2.99d. But for those of you who do frequent the OC1 server, here is a rundown of the current stances. We are aiming for 10+ stances in the long run.

Stances enable players access to a specific set of abilities catered to their current play style or mood. They also help individualise yourself from other obscurity players by allowing you to specialise in a specific gameplay style.

There are a couple of important things to take note of before I get to explaining each stance:

Firstly, stances can be changed by using the frag grenade button. You must hold it down and move the mouse left and right to select the stance you want to use. This works in a similar way to how firemode selection works. One downside to this is that push grenades have now been added as a firemode as the key they were on was specifically needed for selection to work correctly.

Secondly, switching stances causes the obscurity to be engulfed in red flames for 3 seconds whilst the stance activates. This flame can be seen by everybody. This is to help stop constant stance changing whilst playing, and help balance the game.

To useStance Specials you must set a key for it via Multiplayer Controls (Esc > Controls > Multiplayer Controls)The Stance Special button is only useable when the stance icon is 100% visible. When it is transparent it needs to recharge or specific conditions need to be met before you can activate the stance special.

The stances, and their specials are as follows:

Ghost(Half/half man icon)This stance allows the obscurity to run around and not emit any sound unless leaping, jumping or falling. You will not push any objects around either. In other words, you make no sound whilst your feet are on the ground. The drawback is that you are much weaker when in this stance. A single bullet from a powerful weapon can sometimes be enough to drop you.Blink: Upon pressing the stance special button, the Obscurity enters a "phase-like" state where they take no damage. The Obscurity is in this state for a very short period of time, and it takes time to recharge. Due to the small amount of damage Ghost users can take, this can be a life saver.Stalker (Explosion/hit type effect coming from behind a man icon)This stance allows you to stab a stationary enemy for an instant kill.Steal: Allows the Obscurity to steal a Marine's gun. The Obscurity must stalk their prey by staying within 5 metres of the Marine for around 10 seconds. Once this is done, you will hear a growl and the stance icon will light up to notify you that the stance special button can be used to steal. The weapon you take will only have the ammo that was left in the clip before you took it.

Leaper (Multiple arrows arranged ascendingly icon)You make no sound whilst falling and can leap at full capacity when stuck to walls.Glue: Use the stance key to leap and stick to walls automatically, saving time and effort.Vanguard (Repeat/default icon/circle arrow)When using Vanguard, all non-orb firemodes recharge at half the speed allowing you to dish out large amounts of annoyance towards your enemies.Repeat: Press the stance button prior to firing a specific firemode to make that firemode recharge again instantly. Works for all firemodes. Stance special requires recharge after used.

Meatshield (Bloody bullet holes icon)This stance allows you to stab an enemy in the back to obtain and wear his skin. All damage taken whilst wearing a human skin is absorbed. Once fatal damage occurs you will be ejected from the skin. High falls and phasing will also make the skin drop off. Be aware that you are visible to all when wearing a skin, and as such you should try to blend in with the crowd. Shed Skin: Pressing the stance button whilst wearing a skin will allow you to dispose of the skin and return to your normal self.

Tank (Arm flexing icon)When using this stance, the damage you recieve from bullets is 5x weaker. Explosives damage is also reduced, but knives still deal out the same amount of damage. You are constantly visible whilst in this perk unless you go prone. Going prone will douse the flames instantly, but damage taken will not be reduced whilst flames are doused.Shove: Stance special key to push everybody within range away from you. Also explodes claymores.

Assassin (Man stepping out of warp thing)Killing an enemy instantly recharges your ability to mark a spot, allowing you to strike more quickly and efficiently.Shadow Jump: Tap the stance special button once to mark a point. When you tap the stance button again you will return to that spot. If you managed to get a kill your marker will be recharged instantly, otherwise there will be a long wait.

Firebug (Flaming man icon)The passive ability of this stance is a basic form of immunity to fire (flames won't spread across your body), and the ability to light a marine on fire with each knife slash.Flame Burst: Tap the stance special button to make a marine that you have previously slashed become engulfed in a flame explosion, fully igniting him. Flames can spread to other marines if they are too close.

Stutter (Man warping forward icon)Your taunts will regenerate in half the speed when used. This will allow you to taunt your enemies and multiply your score more frequently.Stutter: By tapping stance special, you will warp a short distance forward in the direction you are facing.

Puppeteer (Puppet icon)Unlimited possession time and automatically possesses any victims you kill whilst in a possessed body.Instant Puppet: Press the stance special key to instantly possess a choking marine.

We will probably make him roar when his meatshield drops off...well that is what I have already put forth to Falcar anyways.

I have also noticed the recharge bug when stealing an enemy gun and reverting back to the obscurity rifle. We will definately be looking into fixing it. Not much slips past our eyes! (Maybe an obs or two here and there)

The obscurity rifle firemodes should all recharge, there are no limits other than recharge time.

Nothing has been changed here. The way the rounds reset makes bloodlust stuff up sometimes, but it has not increased in frequency. It may seem like it has though due to the update to tracking and bloodlust. Only stationary targets are displayed now, so if a target is moving you will not see any bloodlust or green tracking cloud until he stops moving.

maybe instead of the stance changing colour, which i got confused with, make it a green or a blue or something, maybe even black to make it look badass lol

also an idea for the assassin astance, maybe if they were able to run a bit faster (would fit in with the picture) and if possible a slightly stealthier model(though i doubt changing playermodels is possible) as they are presumably stealthier as well

I have an idea. Could it possible to make a stance which gives more knife range or be able to "launch" to knife? I think increasig range would be better. Launching can get op. However it gets pretty frustrating when u can't knife them unless u touch them...

I don't know snake. it's a good thing u also redused explovive dmg on tank but still... if you don't have good ping you will still get owned at knifing. it needs something special. maybe not constantly be on fire but blink like every one second on fires for about 1/3 seconds.

• No• We have other plans now, so no need to state things I have already said regarding this perk.• Leaper is fine. Use stance special and leap and you have plenty of leaping opportunities.• Assassin passive plans are in the works also, which I have stated so no need to ask for them.• Probably not• No• No - They balance out based on their stats and mag sizes.

You are still epicly weak and make noise when leaping. Ghost was only good in levels with minimal physics objects, which is not many. I haven't tried it yet but its possible that it may be too OP. We will see. More importantly, why did the server crash???

It was something simple that Falcar forgot to add, but when it crashed, the errors were not actually relevant to what was stuffing up, therefore it was difficult to pinpoint the cause. After trying to fix for ages I eventually noticed that selecting the obscurity pistol and changing firemode caused a server crash. Then it took about 5 mins to pinpoint and fix. YAY!

I gave you a personal thanks for pointing towards the firemodes, but I was already focussing on the firemode icon arrays. You did however redirect my focus away from that and onto the firemode selection. Thanks Describe, but now that you killed the server we can call it even.

well it's not exactly my fault.. no one with the ability to restart the map or whatever was on.. I demands a restart map button since you don't wanna give me rcon. But it's okay, you can make it so only I can use it? :D LOL

You can only vouch for yourself though. How about if you have just rotated it and then another admin comes on and decides to rotate it? Or what if I actually like the map it is on and you decide to change it?

Only I should have ABSOLUTE POWER

PS: I am working closely with Cometfish () to implement admin logins for rcontroll, with limited server control capabilities, for a select few admins.

Getting back on topic:How is everyone liking the new changes to those 4 stances? I'm digging the leaper changes the most so far.

I only suggested the next map button believing that yes, you have chosen mature enough admins to be able to handle it and know when not to change map... I mean obviously I am not going to change the map when the server is full and everyone is loving the map. I mean maybe late at night when you and Falc aren't around and there are only 3 or 4 or 5 of us on the server and say Highrise comes on and none of us like it.....

It means you can hide somewhere and pounce down on people, for a 100% stealth attack which should be a guaranteed kill. However, you can't repeat the process with people in the area, or you'll be discovered.

I'm not sure we can silence the landing noise. I'll see what I can brainstorm to balance the stance, but if I can't think of anything I'll add what you posted Falcar. TBH I haven't had much trouble vs it. I think Des just hates it because he can't hit them

Could make it like Mario, full leap sounds, but if you land on a Marines head he gets gored, and then all that remains there is an innocent looking obs lol.

ah yeah, I just remembered that self.moveSpeed is actually the scalar speed, which I kept monitoring in a single thread as a variable to optimise it and remove all the square root functions. It should actually be

( self getVelocity() )[ 2 ]

which is a vector, the contents of which can be accessed individually by reading as an array.

The bug he was talking about is the fact that you can't knife without a weapon out... this could be fixed by giving the player a weapon with no ammunition (such as what happens when you're gutted without a pistol) but really if that happens to you you don't deserve to knife hahah.

In stalker stance, after you hear the growl and the icon becomes fully red, you have to touch to the victim to get his weapons. I tried to do it behind wall but nothing happened. Am I correct about how to use this stance, if i'm not can you make a more specific help because I really liked that stance,
thank you :)

1.) Is there any chance of the first post here being edited and the icon pic's being added to each stance name? Many thanks if you can.

2.) I know the 'weapon' list for the Obs player is in the help menu of the game but is it here somewhere in the same layout as the Stances above? If so can someone please point me in the right direction - also does it have icon pic's?